Entitled

The rights of nature are enshrined in a number of constitutions around the world, and there is a growing movement to extend rights to nature as it faces increasing threats. The extension of rights to nature prompts fundamental questions about the nature, enforcement and evolution of rights. Does nature have rights, or do they belong only to humans? Are the rights of nature human rights in disguise? Is the extension of legal rights to nature enough to ensure its protection? In the final episode of Season 1 of Entitled, University of Chicago Law Professors Claudia Flores and Tom Ginsburg talk to Frank Tumusiime, Coordinator and Senior Research Fellow at Advocates for Natural Resources and Development (ANARDE) and Aaron Mills, Assistant Professor at McGill University Faculty of Law and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Constitutionalism and Philosophy.

Today, medical advances make it possible for a woman to have a baby on behalf of someone else. This has given many people – including many in the LGBTQI community – the exciting possibility of founding a family of their own. But this incredible medical technology raises new questions about rights: how far do reproductive rights go? How do you establish the rights of a parent or citizenship? Who has a right to found a family? In this episode of Entitled, we explore reproduction and bodily autonomy in a changing world. We talk to Kasumi Nakagawa, an expert on surrogacy in Cambodia, and Kate Gilmore, former deputy director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The right to bear arms is an American touchstone, found in very few other countries. Many think it should not be a right at all, and the debate over it is highly polarized. This episode broadens the lens to show how other countries handle guns, and suggests ways to cut through the charged discussion here at home.

The collapse of the Afghan government has raised grave concerns for the future of the country, particularly for women. Exit is not a generally available option, but should it be? On this episode, we continue our conversation about migration, and the limits of the current human rights system for protecting the rights of women.

The right to seek and enjoy asylum has never been more important than in today’s global landscape. At the same time, countries have never been more committed to finding increasingly creative ways to avoid having to take in refugees. Today on Entitled, we discuss the right to asylum and what our rights are at the border of another country. We know the movement of distressed migrants at sea and nations’ borders is the cause for a lot of human tragedy. Are borders necessary – can we conceive of them in a different way? What duties should nations have to assist these migrants? Joining Professors Claudia Flores and Tom Ginsburg this week are Nina Kerkebane, an Algerian asylee and an entering graduate student at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy; Ayelet Shachar, author of The Birthright Lottery: Citizenship and Global Inequality; Maya Elzinga-Soumah, Senior Legal Associate with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Aruba and Curaçao; and Itamar Mann, Director of the Global Legal Action Network and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Haifa Faculty of Law.

Free speech is one of those all important rights but one whose scope changes over time. Today, it is more likely to take place behind a screen rather than in the town square. What does the right to speak freely really look like when we are speaking in likes, comment bubbles and Tiktok videos? In this episode of Entitled, we explore freedom of speech, how and whether we still have it. We talk to Vietnamese pop star, MaiKhoi, an Artist Protection Fund fellow in residence at the University of Pittsburgh, who went from being dubbed the Vietnamese “Lady Gaga” to an exiled free speech activist, and to David Kaye, a UN expert on freedom of opinion and expression. Who’s protecting the right to free speech now that companies like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram control the spaces where speech takes place?

Lawyers and law professors Claudia Flores and Tom Ginsburg have traveled the world getting into the weeds of global human rights debates. On this first episode of Entitled, they begin their journey of exploring the stories and thorny questions around why rights matter and what’s the matter with rights. Joining them are professor of ethics and legal philosophy at Oxford University, John Tasioulas; constitution building expert Zaid Al-Ali; and Columbia law professor Jamal Greene, author of "How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights is Tearing America Apart." Join the discussion on how we might begin to better understand the role of rights in our diverse and yet increasingly connected world.